News Bits: Wars, Father, Fannie, Kamikaze, Death

Star Wars
Disney’s D23 expo kicks off today with the exhibition floor in Anaheim including a detailed diorama of what the Star Wars Land theme parks will look like when they open in 2019. Gizmodo has posted a gallery of shots, click the links to check them out.

Like Father
Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer are teaming to star in Lauren Miller Rogen’s comedy feature “Like Father” for Netflix. The low-budget comedy is aiming for an August start in New York and the Caribbean.

The story centers on a workaholic woman (Bell) who is left at the altar by her groom-to-be and winds up on her honeymoon cruise with the one person she thought she’d never see: her equally workaholic father (Grammer) who abandoned her. [Source: THR]

Fannie Lou Hammer Biopic
Gregory Allen Howard (“Remember the Titans”) has been hired to pen a biopic of Fannie Lou Hamer – a sharecropper who became an important voting-rights advocate and founded the first integrated political party in 1960s Mississippi. Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, Mark Radcliffe and Jenny Blum will produce. [Source: Variety]

Kamikaze
Hollywood Gang Productions has begun development of a World War II movie about the USS Laffey, which survived an intense kamikaze attack during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

A total of 32 men died and 71 were wounded that day. Rosalind Ross will pen this adaptation of John Wukovitz’s book “Hell From the Heaven” and Gianni Nunnari will produce. [Source: Variety]

Death Note
A new poster for Adam Wingard’s live-action adaptation of the classic manga “Death Note” has gone online. This one puts the focus on the mysterious detective known only as L (Lakeith Stanfield) who investigates student Light Turner (Nat Wolff) who has been involved in a serious of bizarre deaths. “Death Note” hits Netflix on August 25th.